Integrated Korean: Beginning 2 (Klear Textbooks in Korean Language) [Paperback]

Young-Mee Cho (Author), Hyo Sang Lee (Author), Carol Schulz (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: University of Hawaii Press (July 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0824823435
• ISBN-13: 978-0824823436
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 6.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #112,442 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #20 in Books > Education & Reference > Dictionaries & Thesauruses > Foreign Language > Korean
  • #24 in Books > Education & Reference > Foreign Languages > Instruction > Korean
  • #24 in Books > Education & Reference > Foreign Languages > Korean

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Vocabulary is somewhat lacking, January 14, 2008

By 

Bizzi Bee (Sweden, Europe) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Integrated Korean: Beginning 2 (Klear Textbooks in Korean Language) (Paperback)

What you learn in this book is no-nonsense useful stuff. That's the main point. Right from book 1 there is no romanization, a big bonus. Romanization keeps you from ever learning Hangul.

[Audio files should have been provided in mp3 format. Converters are available, but the resulting audio quality is bearable, not more.]* The vocabulary is too limited to university student life. Try to find 'job', for instance. It's not there, only 'arbeit', something you do while studying. Many words appear once and never again. A few words are not listed in any of the book's dictionaries. The impression is the editors don't have a firm grip on vocabulary matters.

*[Later addition] Now the publisher lets you download mp3 files. It takes forever, but the difference in sound quality is dramatic. This is really great news!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Best of them all but Could Be Better, February 7, 2011

By 

Brett A. Haberle (Va, USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Integrated Korean: Beginning 2 (Klear Textbooks in Korean Language) (Paperback)

I purchased the Integrated Korean set. Many schools use this book in their Korean Curriculum. Because I am too busy (I work 50+ hours a week) to take a course, I purchased the first two beginning books so that I could learn on my free time. I also have Rosetta Stone v3 Korean and Pimsleur Korean. To be more helpful to you all I will briefly touch over them all.

Pimsleur Korean was actually too overwhelming for me. I believe that Pimsleur works with languages that you are use to hearing and can pronounce easily. Korean is not one of those languages. I would have had no problem doing Pimsleur with Spanish, Japanese, or another language. American's must train their ears and mouths for the Korean language because it uses sounds we are not use to.

Rosetta Stone is a good introduction to Korean. It will give you some vocabulary as well as practice reading, speaking and listening. Because it is so easy to repeat a word, it is easier to train yourself.

Integrated Korean starts off going over the basics. It teaches you how to read, write, and stroke order. Though pronunciation explanations use vocabulary words that most people would not typically know. Unless they were a linguistics major, or in a field that focused on teaching people to speak.

Anyways because this is the second of the two books, it builds on what you have learned. You will find that this book is used for the 102 level of Korean Classes, with the first book being the 101 level. You will learn a lot of school-related vocabulary and some additional grammar. There is a lot of cultural information, which is very important since Korea has such strong cultural ties. It will also help make sure you do not offend anyone. I recommend using this in conjunction with Rosetta Stone and then Pimsleur if you wish. You can also find helpful videos online as well as other free resources to help your learning.

I would have liked deeper explanations for things and more structure. Especially with the alphabet and pronunciation - the trickiest part for an American speaker. I would've given it a 3.5 if it was an option.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Better than Level I Beginner, February 2, 2010

By 

M. Smith (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Integrated Korean: Beginning 2 (Klear Textbooks in Korean Language) (Paperback)

Out of all the self-paced textbooks available, this series isn't perfect but it does get the job done. This particular textbook (Beginning Level 2) is very useful and contains some of the best explanations of Korean grammar I've ever seen. If you are a native English speaker and want to learn Korean grammar and incidental vocabulary, pick up this book.

Remember this textbook is designed to be used in a classroom; namely the University of Hawaii. It outlines the goals, vocabulary and grammar points quite well and actually fits a self-paced and self-determined student quite well outside of the classroom. The chapters are logically laid out and are never too difficult to follow. This book not only takes it slow, but systemically explains and compares previous grammar points to avoid confusion.

Like the other books in the series, the publication date is dated and needs an update. Almost ten years since the last one. However, unlike the previous book in the series (Beginning Level 1) this book stays pretty natural throughout the text. The situations are mostly quite believable and the appropriate level of speech is used most of the time. I found myself pleasantly surprised at the scripts. It rarely felt like a textbook in that it didn't feel dry.

All in all, it's a relatively cheap and easily obtainable self-study resource for explaining Korean grammar in English. I highly recommend it as an additional if not primary resource for studying Korean.